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Department of Psychology Ph: (619) 594-5358 Life Sciences 110
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Department of Psychology Office Location: ALV-6363/101 Mail Code: 1863 Education Ph.D. Institution: State University of New York at Binghamton
Research Interests My primary interests are in studying the physiological mechanisms of action of ethanol on the nervous system that regulate behavioral ingestion of the drug. Goals are to identify specific substrates with which ethanol interacts that are involved in controlling intake and to determine how variation in those substrates leads to excessive consumption. My research utilizes pharmacological and genetic manipulations (i.e., selectively bred lines and knockout models) combined with quantitative measures of ingestive behavior and in vivo electrophysiology to address these issues. One current area of investigation focuses on the interaction of ethanol with gustatory receptors and central neural circuits involved in processing appetitive taste information and the contribution of ethanol-induced activation of these circuits to alcohol consumption. A second related area of interest centers on the trigeminal processing of alcohol and the role of ethanol stimulation of oral trigeminal pathways in modulating alcohol preference. Recent Publications Brasser SM, Mozhui K, Smith DV. Differential covariation in taste responsiveness to bitter stimuli in rats. Chem Senses. 2005 Nov;30(9):793-9. Epub 2005 Nov 2. PMID: 16267162 Donny EC, Brasser SM, Bigelow GE, Stitzer ML, Walsh SL. Methadone doses of 100 mg or greater are more effective than lower doses at suppressing heroin self-administration in opioid-dependent volunteers. Addiction. 2005 Oct;100(10):1496-509. PMID: 16185211 Brasser SM, McCaul ME, Houtsmuller EJ. Alcohol effects during acamprosate treatment: a dose-response study in humans. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2004 Jul;28(7):1074-83. PMID: 15252294 Lemon CH, Brasser SM, Smith DV. Alcohol activates a sucrose-responsive gustatory neural pathway. J Neurophysiol. 2004 Jul;92(1):536-44. Epub 2004 Feb 25. PMID: 14985409 Brasser SM, Spear NE. Contextual conditioning in infants, but not older animals, is facilitated by CS conditioning. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2004 Jan;81(1):46-59. PMID: 14670358 Brasser SM, Spear NE. Physiological and behavioral effects of acute ethanol hangover in juvenile, adolescent, and adult rats. Behav Neurosci. 2002 Apr;116(2):305-20. PMID: 11996316
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